I don't want you to take it personally...
Let be start by saying you can blame Seth Godin on a series called "30 Days of Genius" on Creativelive.com (all of which I highly recommended) on this blog and the subsequent daily blogs to come.
Also, let me apologize ahead of time because if I am going to add a daily blog to my schedule I do not have the energy to go back and proofread and edit them so who know what typos you will see.
So... anyway... I no longer want you to take it personally. Anyone that follows me at all know I am constantly preaching (and hash tagging) about being authentic, living out loud, living on purpose, living with purpose, being bold, etc. It occurred to me today that I am kind of full of crap because although I do all that, how I do it depends on where you see me. I do show the world all of me I just choose how, what, and where I show it depending on how and where I think it will be perceived. So really I am still hiding.
I put my photography stuff on IG, I put my business stuff on LinkedIn, I put my motivation stuff on my personal Facebook page as public, and my personal stuff on my facebook page but I mark it as personal, and if it is "too edgy" I exclude my "acquaintances". If I take a photograph that I want my "Friends" to see I share it to my personal page and if I have something profound (hey it happens :) ) I share that to my photography page. It gets worse in that fact that I am overly modest about my accomplishments on my personal page so I won't come across as arrogant but have to try to emphasize my accomplishments on my business page so I will get hired. And really there is more but you get the picture (pun intended).
It use to be even worse, I use to maintain three IG accounts, personal, nature, and portrait. UGH!
I "real life" I do the same thing. If I am a photographer I wear my "real clothes" and if I am a practice manager I wear a shirt and tie. I make sure this groups sees my tattoos I make sure this group does not. I tone down my style here let it show there, etc. Again exhausting.
I have even caught my internal dialogue rationalizing all this by saying things like, if I get their acceptance for this part and then if they find out about this part it will be okay. Holy crap! Really? It all reminds me of the saying, I would rather be hated for what I am than loved for what I am not. I should say here that I can understand why some people keep their lives compartmentalized and I am not judging or saying they should not. What I am saying is I am not. I am not ashamed of any part of me and any of me at my worse is pretty good.
I heard it said best by Marie Forleo (same CreativeLive series mentioned earlier), I am a mulitpassionate person and you should probably know that going in. :) How dare I not let the world know that I am a passionate artsy guy that has a business degree. I wear a shirt and tie for some jobs and jeans and t-shirts for some. I am known to say a few cuss words, have a few drinks, I am very spiritual, not overly religious, I workout and mediate everyday and if you are not okay with all that well then we probably cannot be friends so need to be on my personal page and you probably do not want to hire me so no need to be on my business page.
I take photographs... a lot... I love them. I love doing it I love sharing them. It is how I see the world so why do I keep them off my personal page so the people that have like me there are not bothered with them???
I love self improvement, I constantly post motivation stuff, but I keep this off my photography page because people that like my photographs are not bothered???
I am very business minded and I am very good at what I do but I don't put in on either because that is not what people on those pages signed up for???
But all that is me, I am those things, they are my pages... ???
It is insanely unauthentic to edit myself this way. And for what so a few people that I do not really connect with might unfriend me, not hire me, not associate with me??? That is more than a little crazy. I would rather authentically and truthfully connect with two people than be "friends" with 200 people.
Besides if you really get to know me this is all going to come out anyway. Unlike my social media presence I do not have the ability to edit myself in real life. :)
I am convince my happiness lies in my ability to live an authentic life and this is one more step in that journey.
I can't even remember if I actually wrote this but all this is why I won't really be maintaining my personal facebook page anymore. If you are looking for me you can find my on my photography pages on facebook and IG. Or (shocking I know) you can look me up in real life. :) I will be there living out loud and taking and posting a lot of photographs and preaching about self motivation and business and blogging and occasionally posting a selfie.